[mslate]

It is literally victim-blaming.

You are choosing to frame a reality where transiting by car is the only acceptable way to live. Many don’t bike by choice, they bike because of economic reality—especially as parents.

San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities on earth, and you must cover rent for cars in addition to yourself. If you want to discourage family formation then go ahead, make it prohibitively expensive to exist as a family in our cities.

[twblalock]

I don't run the world and neither does the OP. I don't even live in San Francisco. It's not our fault that things are this way, and it's really dumb to blame us for pointing out facts.

Is it now also victim-blaming to tell people to wear seat belts, or to look both ways before crossing the street? Telling people about danger is not a form of blaming.

People seem to be reacting to something the OP didn't actually write. Stop ascribing beliefs and motivations to people you don't know based on a few sentences of written text.

[mslate]

Thank you for admitting that you don’t live in San Francisco. The fact is you don’t know who this parent is. You have made the assumption that they are taking unacceptable risks. I don’t know your motivation, but your criticisms aren’t constructive.

[twblalock]

> The fact is you don’t know who this parent is. You have made the assumption that they are taking unacceptable risks.

What on earth are you talking about? Who the heck is the parent here? I am merely defending someone who is being dogpiled by trolls for the outrage of pointing out the fact that cycling in SF is dangerous. I am familiar with SF even though I don't live there, and I know that is the case.

[dang]

Could you please not perpetuate flamewars on HN, regardless of how wrong other people are or you feel they are? I understand the strong feelings on this topic—but posting like this is not what HN is for, and destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

p.s. Re "pointing out the fact" — I'm really not sure how many facts have been pointed out about cycling in SF in this discussion (is there even data on this relative to other places?) as opposed to feelings and perceptions. But let's assume that you and sidfthec are 100% right on the facts, and the people arguing the other side are 0% right. That's still not sufficient for a good HN conversation. Being right is excellent, but not enough; it also matters how you interact with the people who are wrong, or who you feel are wrong.